Angel in Trouble

Just a sample of what can go wrong if you don't know the laws of
Indonesia regarding your children's legal status...

Movie Star Ayu Azhari is under investigation by the Department
of imigration for producing a false birth certificate of her son. Is she
just a victim of the paternalistic system of law?

This time Ayu Azhari apparently couldn't play her role as beautifully
as she did in the TV series Bidadari (Angel). The famous artist
couldn't bring the immigration officials who refused to extend her son's
passport, under her spell. Her son, Sulaeman Atiq Ibrahim, is three years
old. Last Tuesday, she was even investigated for two hours by immigration
officials, because her son's birth certificate was allegedly forged.

The problem, which makes Ayu frown, started when she tried to have
Sulaeman's passport extended. Her sweetheart was born on June 3, 1998 from
her marriage to a Finnish citizen. Ayu, whose original name was Khadijah,
married Ibrahim- her husband's Muslim name - in Jakarta on September 18,
1994. She intended to take Sulaeman along with her to visit his father,
who is on military service in his country.

It turned out, that her popularity didn't make her efforts in extending
the passport easier. It even made the process more complicated for her. According
to head of the South Jakarta Immigration Office, M. Husin Alaydrus, Sulaeman
is actually not an Indonesian citizen. Therefore, he cannot have an Indonesian
passport. It is because of the 1958 Law on Citizenship, the citizenship
of a child born from a marriage between an Indonesian woman and a foreigner
should be that of the father. On this basis, Husin refused to extend Ayu's
fourth child's passport.

Ayu came there twice. Still Husin didn't change is mind. She felt
so bad about it, that she was said to have scolded him and threatened to
have him removed from their office. But when TEMPO contacted her,
she denied that she could have been rude. "How could I dare make threats like that," she
said.

It turned out that later on, Ayu's case has been transferred to the
central immigration office. This time now, Sulaeman's birth certificate
accompanying the documents needed for the passport extension, is allegedly
false. After verification with the South Jakarta Civil Registration Office,
it turned out that the number of the birth certificate shown by Ayu, was
not in the name of Sulaeman, but of Andika Alfie Damara.

Ayu maintained that she didn't know of a similar certificate in
the name of another child. "I don't know, that there are two certificates.
My child's certificate is in Sulaeman's name, not in any other name," she
said.

She was also sure, that her son had Indonesian citizenship, because
her marriage with Ibrahim was legal and registered with the South Jakarta
Civil Registration Office. Also, Sulaeman was born in Jakarta. Therefore
she applied for her son's passport extension in South Jakarta. She admitted
that it was service bureau that handled the obtainment of her son's birth
certificate and passport.

If the certificate is actually false, then under the 1992 Immigration
Law, Ayu should be considered as having given false information when she
applied for the passport. She could face a two-year jail sentence or a
fine of Rp 10 million.

But, the Immigration Director of Supervision & Action, Indra
has taken a careful stance in handling Ayu's case. "She feels, that she
has completed all the required data. If the civil registration office considers
the certificate false, then she might have been the victim of a broker,"
said Indra, who heard that Ayu had obtained the birth certificate through
a broker.

Whatever the further development of the false certificate maybe,
it's certain that the marriage between Ayu and Ibrahim was legal and registered
in compliance with Indonesian marital law, so Sulaeman's citizenship should
be that of his father's. But, if the marriage has been recognized by Indonesian
law, Sulaeman is considered a child born out of wedlock, hence he should
have his mother's citizenship. In this condition there's no problem and
Sulaeman can have an Indonesian birth certificate.

The problem would be different, if Sulaeman must have Finnish citizenship.
This serious problem always befalls an Indonesian woman, who marries a
foreigner. Infants born from mixed (different races) marriages, like Atiq
in Jakarta, Andrea in Surabaya and Samantha in Bandung, have been deported
to their fathers' countries.

The root of the problem is the 1958 Law on Citizenship, which had
a paternalist character (in which the legal line of the father dominates).
There should be, according to Nursjahbani Katjasungkawa, a principle of
equal rights between rights between a mother and a father in deciding the
child's citizenship. An agreement between husband and wife on their child's
citizenship could be legalized by a court. Too bad, an amendment plan on
the Citizenship Law, which contains a reform of this principle, has for
four years not been proposed by the House of Representatives (DPR).